Student Perspectives on School Surveillance : an Explorative Study Using a Mobile Application Prototype

Abstract: Schools should be safe places for young people to learn through freely expressing and sharing ideas. This requires respecting student privacy, as they otherwise feel distrusted and uncomfortable. At the same time, surveillance is becoming an increasingly important part of facilitating a safe school environment. This has created an interesting dynamic where increasingly pervasive surveillance solutions seeking safety and other benefits are threatening student privacy. Therefore, researchers stand before the urgent challenge of figuring out what is a desirable direction for this technology. This qualitative study focuses on students’ perspectives on surveillance and privacy. Data was collected through interviews, card sorting, and the use of a prototype together with scenarios. The results of the study expand upon current research and reveal that actively involving students in design and research processes is important to ensure sustainable solutions. Students desire more value in terms of control, assistance, safety and information. At the same time, many concerns about discomfort, distrust and abuse are present. A set of guidelines on important considerations for future surveillance research and design are presented which focus on collaboration, responsibilityand creativity. Key issues causing inefficient communication between studentsand researchers are discussed, and the need for providing further education on the topic is motivated.